following report from the "Pennsylvania Freeman" of June 6, 1844: “An animated meeting was held on the subject of Big Ben on the 26th ultimo in Forestville, at which George Chapman presided and R. H. Donatt acted as secretary, and the following among other spirited resolutions, was adopted. Resolved, That it is the duty of every one to do all that he constitutionally can to defeat and baffle the slave catcher, to protect his prey from his grasp, and to hold up to public scorn and indignation the infamous conduct of the Baillys and Hubbards, and all other Northern men who sell their principles and barter the rights of their fellow-men for Southern gold." The sum of $700, the amount demanded by Slater, was soon after raised, and George Chapman and Jon athan K. Bonham were sent on behalf of the citizens, who paid the ransom, and restored the kidnapped slave to his adopted Northern home. After his return to Bucks county he was never the same man that he was before. His physical strength was much impaired by the wounds received in his struggle for liberty, and his spirit seemed much broken. He worked for a time in Buckingham, and in my own native township, where I remember seeing him occasionally, and, although bowed down somewhat by the hardships which he had undergone, I was always impressed by his enormous stature. His feet especially were conspicuously large, and one of the jokes that then passed current was that his shoes were never mated, one being older than the other, as it took so much leather to make him a pair that he could afford to buy but one at a time. He was maried some ten years after his return to a woman named Sarah Johnson, of Norristown, who spent with him the last years of his life in the Bucks County Hospital, where they told a visitor they were well off, as they always had plenty to eat and wear. I suppose Ben's shoes were mated after the county began to foot his shoemaker's bills! For information as to the case of Big Ben, I am especially indebted to Alfred and Edward Paschall, who interviewed him in the asylum toward the close of his life, and obtained important statistics as to his life. and his escape from slavery.. (To be Continued.) From the Sunday School Times. THE SENDING OF THE APOSTLES. BY ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON, S.T.D. JESUS of Nazareth came into our world with the claim to be the Son of Man, as embracing the entire fulness of that humanity, which is seen at best in part and fragments in each of us. He came to gather a society of all men, a brotherhood of humanity, fitted by its character to embrace the whole human race, so that no one should be excluded from it except by his own fault. He chose a small group of men as the best representatives and world-wide organizers of this new brotherhood. He gave its keys into their hands, and entrusted its future to their faithfulness, their wisdom, and their courage. How did he deal with this variety in order, and order in variety, which marks the characters of men? Suppose that he had selected a type characterized by fearless loyalty, penetrating wisdom, and unbroken sympathy with himself,―men who are strong where ordinary humanity is weak, who walk safely where it stumbles. In that case we should have discovered in the gospel story a remoteness from ourselves and our lives that would have been painful. It would not have taken hold of us, for we should have felt that the story concerned exceptional people, who felt none of our difficulties and shared in none of our stumblings. The actual story of our Lord's ministry and of his relation to his apostles produces a very different impression from this. It shows that he seems to have intended to convey to his church in all ages the assur ance that he who is able to subdue all things unto himself finds no difficulty in employing in his service every type of human nature, from the strongest to the weakest. Into that little first church he seemed to gather the largest variety of human types that its number permitted, and to have made each of them serviceable to his glorious ends, as he can and will to the end of time. Not less striking is our Lord's manner of associating his apostles in the pairs in which he sent them forth on their first ministry. Matthew, who tells the story as the act of the King, who is choosing and arranging the human material of his government, arranges the Twelve in six such groups, for which we have no other explanation than this. Taking them as thus associated for apostolic work, we find the first pair to be Peter and Andrew, natural brothers, but men of markedly contrasted character. Peter is the impetuous and headstrong apostle, who is always ready to speak and to act without much regard to either fitness or consequences. He was a man to bring his Master into a great deal of trouble, as by his use of his sword on Malchus's ear, but not equally ready to face trouble when it came, as he showed the same night in the high-priest's hall. He was outspoken, impetuous, vehement, whether in the right or the wrong. His danger was that of becoming a mere fire of straws, with plenty of blaze for an instant, and then a blank. Our Lord saw all this in him, and knew his perils. So he sent with him Andrew, who seems to have been just the opposite of Peter. Him the Scotch nation has fitly taken as their patron. He is the Committee of Ways and Means, who knows in the wilderness that "a lad here hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes," though he adds, in his Scotch way, "but what are they among so many?" It is when he goes with the three confidential apostles that they go "secretly " to ask the meaning of that perilous saying that not one stone shall be left upon another. It is to him that Philip refers the request of the Greeks who would fain see Jesus, knowing Andrew is a safe adviser. So they are sent out together, each to supply the other's defects, for the kingdom has need of both. It is misguided when either the rashness of the radical or the caution of the conservative gets the upper hand to the repression of the other. The next pair, James and John, are also brothers, but contrasted in point of years. James the Great (or the elder) is so called to distinguish him from the younger James, who was already a full-grown man. This James died the very first of the apostles, under the sword of Herod, while John survived all the rest, outliving his Master by more than sixty years. He therefore must have been a mere lad when he lay on Jesus' breast without arousing any jealousy, and passed unquestioned in the judgment hall. This is confirmed by the report among the apostles that he was to live on till the second advent. So the Lord, who calls all ages to his service, and has place and use for all, sent them out together, for He who loves when youth and age are met, For sacred song, joy's golden mean. The third pair, Philip and Bartholomew, are marked by intellectual differences. Philip is the slowwitted apostle. To Nathanael's objection about Nazareth, he can only say, "Come and see." When asked what is to be done for the multitudes, he can only dwell on the difficulty; and he knows not what to do with the Greeks when they ask him, with his Greek name, to take them to his Master. Especially, his slowness is seen in his missing the whole point of Jesus' discourse about his own manifestation of the Father. To his "Show us the Father" his Master replies with wonderful patience, but a plain hint that he might have got forward a little faster in that school. Philip brought Nathanael Bartholomew to Jesus, and here the slow man led a quick one. Nathanael had met the statement that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah with a smart but natural objection to that sort of place supplying that sort of man. But in three questions he is satisfied of Jesus' claim, and greets him as the Son of God, the King of Israel. He is as alert as the other is slow. So the Master sends them together. Even the slow can help the quick, as Philip did with his "Come and see." And the quick can help the slow to perceive what else they had failed to get the comfort and profit of. The church is for all degrees of intelligence, as well as for all ages. Thomas, and Matthew the publican, present a more doubtful combination. A church built on faith and the confession of the unseen, surely had no need of doubters. The church of our own days looks askance at them, and deposes them if it find them among its apostles. Yet Thomas was chosen, in spite of his being a grumbling (Luke 11: 16), contradictory (John 14: 5) doubter, who would believe in no resurrection until he had undeniable proof of it. But our Lord gave him even that, and brought him to his knees, with his mouth full of confession. The Lord does not cast out the doubter though the church sometimes does. But he sends with him Matthew, whose triumphant faith tore him away from his business and wealth, and lifted him from the publican level to that of an evangelist, full of the nation's past as well as of his Master's present, and bringing the two into glorious harmony. Fearless search and fearless faith are not antagonistic. They help each other in the Master's service, and no alarmist should be allowed to make strife between them. The fifth pair are known by their epistles, if—as I think-James the Less be the James who wrote the Epistle. It is a message of righteousness rebuking the loose tongues, the empty professions, and the mammon worship, which stained even the apostolic churches. Its keynote is, "Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works." He was a man who detested the humbug of a religion of empty professions. His associate apostle is best known as "Judas, not Iscariot," the Jude of the epistle which follows that of James. His rebukes are for false teachers, who are devastating the churches, and its one memorable exhortation is, "Hold fast the faith once delivered to the saints." The same character appears in John's Gospel, where he asks our Lord to define exactly how he will manifest himself to his own as not unto the world. So the man who saw in Christianity a life, and the man who saw in it a doctrine, are sent out together. Each needs the other. The severance of doctrine from life in the church's scholastic ages, and the severance of life from doctrine in our own, are equally futile. Each needs the other, and what God has joined in the gospel, life and doctrine, power and wisdom (1 Cor. 1: 24), man need not try to put asunder. The sixth pair presents the greatest contrast. It is a contrast, not of two characters which are equally available for the service of the kingdom, but of one friendly and the other alien to it. Simon the Zealot. had been one of that extreme party which shrank from no sacrifice, no peril, and hardly any crime, in behalf of their country. His association with it shows up his temper, and that temper he would bring to this new service. As once it was all for his country, so now it was all for Christ,-all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. His zeal would lose its bitterness, but it would be zeal still, such as stirred Jesus when he made the scourge of small cords, and drove the traders and the money-changers from the temple. The sin of Judas Iscariot was just the want of this zeal. He was ready to go a certain way with Jesus, to preach the coming of the kingdom, and work miracles on its behalf, but not to give himself up without reserve to the Master's service. He betrays his fatal lack in his comment on Mary's use of the ointment, when he indicates his feeling that it is very well to show a reasonable respect to Jesus, but overdoing things to honor him in this way. All the rest give without counting. He alone clings to his arithmetical measures. He counts the two hundred pence and the forty pieces! His sin is that of the minimum Christian of all ages, who wants to be a Christian if it does not cost too much, and to get to heaven if it does not demand too great sacrifices. He is the fatal instance of a religion without zeal and abandon. So the six pairs show of what wonderfully varied characters and conditions the Lord built up his first church, using this very variety to bind its members into closer fellowship, and to make them more effec tual in service. All types, all kinds, all ages, all minds, are claimed equally by him. He has place and use for every faculty. FRIENDS' NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS. THIRD MONTH 6, 1898.-No. 10. PURE RELIGION. GOLDEN TEXT.—Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.—James 1: 27. Scripture reading: James 1: 19–27. HISTORICAL. (See previous lesson.) This text brings out very clearly the practical nature of the whole Epistle. To the Hebrews especially, to whom the letter is addressed, the idea of a religion not depending on any special observances and forms must have seemed very strange. This letter is in sharp contrast to the very doctrinal Epistle called Hebrews, directed to the same people as this of James. A comparison of the two brings out very distinctly the difference in the point of view which may be found among the various New Testament writers. TEACHING. As with many of the most elevated and most helpful words of the Bible, the Golden Text and the whole lesson which it sums up, expresses its teaching so fully that any attempt at explanation would rather darken counsel than serve to illuminate. We will therefore rather note here an indirect lesson: that the really helpful things in the Bible and elsewhere are rather the simple statements of truth which will be recognized by any earnest soul, than expositions of new and intricate matter. We have cause to be thankful that the inspired writers have not withheld their statements of these simple truths lest they should be thought to say what every one knows. What every one knows, said clearly, is just the most helpful thing in very many cases; because the lack of the average Christian is not intelligence, but will. When he wishes to act otherwise than as his conscience, directs a hundred suggestions are at hand to tell him that his duty to God may be accomplished in some easier way than in the plain way of duty. Let him give Let him give largely to charity, let him take a class in the Sabbath School, let him sacrifice one of the things he can spare better than just this one pet vice or vanity. To such the highest help is in the clear statements as that which heads our lesson. "" Keep thyself unspotted." Help the weak.” Such plain expression sweeps away the petty lies and subterfuges by which we so often try to excuse ourselves for doing as we wish rather than as we ought. Such helpful words are they which make the biography of Jesus the most inspiring writings that literature holds. There is nothing difficult of comprehension in the command to "love one another as I have loved you." As often as we go back to it we see as in a mirror that we fall far, far short of the love that laid down life so willingly. And on this brief, clear command and another like unto it, are said to hang all the law and the prophets. Surely then the law cannot be difficult. We find nowhere a command on the part of Jesus to accept a special theory of his nature or his relation with God. Keep thyself unspotted." A lesson like this is not one for exposition but for self-searching. Are there any weak children of our Father whom I should visit? Are the hands I stretch heavenward in any way tainted with injustice of thought or deed? Am I unspotted by worldliness? On the world's broad field of battle whose soldier have I chosen to be? Or am I no soldier but only the camp follower, lying in wait to seize any possible personal advantage and careless of my duties to my fellows? While a hundred thousand of our fellow men are being destroyed yearly by a business which yields our government one-fifth of its revenue; while social vice is slaying its thousands; while, official dishonesty is endorsed by careless citizens; while a prospect of war with those most nearly related to us by blood is welcomed by many; while we view with indifference the slaughter of thousands at our very doors by a despotic government and see no duty as a nation unless in some way our business interests are threatened; while the church has so lost its hold upon us as a people that far less than half of our people attend any place of worship; while all these things and more of like kind are true are we doing our whole, duty as lovers of men? Shall not this lesson to-day be truly one for rigid and truthful self-examination ? Shall not each ask himself the question, By what right do I claim to be a Christian ? SCRIPTURE STUDY AT RACE STREET. Conference Class of Race Street First-day School, Phila delphia. Syllabus for Second month 27, 1898. Subject for consideration : "Jeremiah and His Prophecy." Presented by Samuel S. Ash. The paper will consider: Who Jeremiah was; his character; his times, including the finding of the "book of Covehis close friendship with King Josiah; his years of comparative nant,'' etc.; his prophecies; his writings; his youthful call; quietude; his second call, in the days of Jehoiakim; his final struggles and his fall. Comparisons and classification. Tests of true prophecy. Conclusions. References and Aids to Study.-W. Gladden, "Who Wrote the Bible?" F. W. Farrar, "The Minor Prophets." T. K. Cheyne, "Jeremiah, his Life and Times." Smith's Bible Dictionary. Questions: 1. Why was Jeremiah classed with the greater prophets? 2. What modern reformers may be compared with Jeremiah? 3. Have the days of prophecy ceased? BIBLE READINGS.-Jeremiah 1: 1-9; 7: 22, 23; 22: 1319; 20: 1-6; 5: 30–31; 21: 31-34; 18: 7-10; 26: 8, 12, 16. II. Kings 22. Lamentations, 3: 22-26. TEMPERANCE LESSONS (FOR ADULT CLASSES). TEMPERANCE AND THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. The Cyclopædia of Temperance and Prohibition says, (art. Friends): "The Yearly Meetings when touching upon the liquor question invariably take radical ground. The Friends are among the most earnest advocates of Prohibition and opponents of compromise measures. At a very early stage in Temperance reform the Friends became advocates of total abstinence, and soon they took strong ground against the traffic in alcoholic liquors. At present, as indicated in the above quotation, their official position is distinctly for the legal Prohibition of the liquor business. In many cases this position is stated directly in the discipline, in others it must be learned from epistles, committees' reports adopted by the Yearly Meetings, or other incidental expression. Such expressions either from the discipline, or from recent minutes of the different Yearly Meetings, are given here with the hope that Friends will endeavor earnestly to make their personal attitude on the question square with the public statements of their meetings. From the discipline of New York Yearly Meeting (p. 75): "As the Alcoholic liquor traffic is the source of so large a proportion of the vice, misery, and crime in the land no member of our Society should lend his influence in any way toward the continuance of such a demoralizing and destructive business." From the discipline of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (p. 44): "As the granting of licenses to sell intoxicants is contrary to the best interests of society, Friends are earnestly entreated to bear a faithful testimonty, by precept and example against a system which gives to individuals the sanction of government to engage in such a business." In epistle to Genesee Yearly Meeting (1895) we find this: "We find a growing sentiment in favor of Prohibition as the only practicable remedy." At the last Yearly Meeting (1897) a resolution was favorably discussed and referred to the committee which gathered the exercises exhorting all Friends to consider carefully before voting for anyone not distinctly committed to the prohibition of the liquor traffic. In the epistle of Baltimore Yearly Meeting to Indiana Yearly Meeting (1894) is the following statement: “ Believing that the use and sale of alcoholic liquors as a beverage is a most serious obstacle to the progress of Christianity, that it causes the downfall of untold numbers of our brothers and sisters and that it endangers the integrity of our republic, we most earnestly protest against the licensing of the sale of liquor by city, State, or national government and urge members of our society to maintain a constant opposition to the liquor power in all its forms and against the system of obtaining any revenue from them by the government. I have not been able to find a definite official statement on this subject from Ohio, but have not had access to full reports from that yearly meeting. The Philanthropic Committee of Ohio, in its report, as quoted at the Swarthmore Conferences, says: "Many of our members speak and work against a law so degrading as to license the sale of intoxicants. In its epistle to Genesee (1894), Indiana Yearly Meeting says: "The meeting adopted an address embodying the principle of Prohibition as being the only position we can safely and consistently occupy to stay the advancing tide of intemperance." In 1896 Indiana Yearly Meeting adopted the resolution quoted above from Baltimore, and printed it in the Yearly Meeting report. Illinois Yearly Meeting in its epistle to Genesee Yearly Meeting (1895) makes the following statement: "Being unconditionally opposed to the traffic in intoxicating liquors of all kinds as a beverage, and believing it to be our duty as a Society and as individuals to do everything practicable to aid in its suppression, we declare ourslves opposed to legalizing it by license or in any other manner and in favor of its prohibition by constitutional provision or statutory enactment, or both. From the minutes of Genesee Yearly Meeting (1896) we quote the following: "We desire the early and earnest attention of Parliament [Dominion of Canada] turned to that great source of misery and crime which it inconsistently legalizes, namely, the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor, the fruits of which in this country are a constant menace to and drain upon legitimate institutions, life, and citizenship." Our yearly meetings agree, then, that the license system is a wrong one and that the prohibition of the traffic is the only right course. Yet the States in which Friends are chiefly found are not prohibition States and in none of them is there an active effort for the overthrow of unrighteous laws. In New York and Ohio the liquor business is taxed. In the other States containing Yearly Meetings it is licensed. The movement for Prohibition is distinctly weaker than it was some years ago. Are we content to put forth high sounding utterances, where they have little effect and to remain inactive elsewhere?—Does our membership believe what our official bodies utter? If not, we should come to an understanding as to what we do agree upon, and in either case we should work loyally together. Suggestion :-The line of profitable and serious discussion is indicated in the questions asked in the last few lines. How shall we bring our full strength to bear in a united effort toward real improvement? J. H. H. POPULAR EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. J. N. Larned. in Atlantic Monthly. AN American visitor to England who spends some little time in the country can hardly fail to become conscious of three serious facts: (1) That there is a strong class-feeling against much education for those who are looked on as underlings and servants, a feeling more prevalent and more pronounced than the shamefaced sentiment of like meanness that is whispered in some snobbish American circles. (2) That the "school rate seems to be the most begrudged of English taxes, the most sharply criticised, the most grumbled at; and this to a degree for which there seems nothing comparable in America. (3) That the opposition to secular schools, fostered by the Church and ostensibly actuated by a desire for religious instruction in the schools, is largely supported in reality by the two sentiments indicated above. . . . Looking, therefore, to the increasingly democratic conditions that are inevitable in England, the reluctance and factiousness of disposition that appear among its citizens touching the vital matter of popular education are ominous of evil to the nation, and gravely lessen its chance of holding, under the reign of democracy, the high place to which it rose under an aristocratic regime. DISORDER. I hate the look of disorder, because it shows either a shows either a contempt for details or an aptness for spiritual life. To arrange the things among which we have to live, is to establish the relation of property and of use between them and us; it is to lay the foundation of those habits without which man tends to the savage state. What, in fact, is social organization, but a series of habits, settled in accordance with the disposition of our nature? I distrust both the intellect and the morality of those people to whom disorder is of no consequence. What surrounds us, reflects more or less that which is within us. If our tastes did not reveal our characters, they would be no longer tastes, but instincts.-Emile Souvestre. For the burdens which God lays on us, there will always be grace enough. The burdens which we make for ourselves we must carry alone.-Anthony W. Thorold. If you have built castles in the a'r, your work need not be lost-that is where they should be; now put foundations under them.-Thoreau. PRESSING forward when the sense shrinks back calls for courage; and sitting still in a patient abiding otime when the heart would press forward,—this def mands courage also.-Sunday School Times. Friends' Intelligencer and Journal. EDITORS: HOWARD M. JENKINS. LYDIA H. HALL. RACHEL W. HILLBORN. PHILADELPHIA, SECOND MONTH 26, 1898. THE CRY OF DISCORD. It will be a sad disappointment, certainly, to Christian people, if the Nineteenth Century, like the Eighteenth, ends in the midst of war. We have supposed that our advancement, in the hundred years that have passed since Napoleon made Europe a battle-field, was great enough in all particulars to carry us safely beyond the conditions of Austerlitz and Jena. But it is only too obvious that, almost the world over, the loudest voice in the utterances of the nations is that which is quarrelsome and discordant. Everywhere, in every land, on all the continents, this appears. Even the two nations of the Scandinavian Kingdom, Sweden and Norway, are described as inflamed against each other to the point of conflict,— nations so kindred in blood, in character, and in interest, that they should banish the thought of quarrel before a word of difference could rise to their lips. In Central America, the republics which a little while ago went through the form of establishing a federal union, are ready to fly at one another's throats. Europe, as is so often said, is an armed camp. China is suffering dismemberment. India is consumed by famine and plague, and her border lighted up by war. So far the United States has escaped. For over thirty years we have enjoyed entire peace. For more than fifty years we have had no foreign war. Yet clouds appear even upon our horizon. Whence come wars, and whence come fighting among you? asked the scripture writer. And he answered-this is eighteen hundred years ago, or more-from the covetousness, the haughtiness, the pride, the selfishness of men. But the wisdom that is from above, he declared, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits. And the fruits of righteousness are sown in peace for them that make peace. These are truths as definite and as real as they were when uttered, and no less applicable now than then. The wisdom that is "from above" has no unity with the passions that engender war. It is a condition, when it prevails, in which discord cannot live. Any reasonable comprehension of it, and desire to attain to it, put to shameful flight the falsehood, the deceit, the oppressive and injurious purpose, out of which come wars and fightings. What a pity that out of the forces which influence the world's action there might not be some angel, like Ithuriel, at whose touch the secret pur poses of wrong, leading up to bloodshed, should lie exposed in all their revolting features! Though it was known that she was seriously ill, the announcement, on the 18th inst., that Frances E. Willard had died the previous evening, at her boarding-place in New York city, was a painful shock to the many who have followed her work with sympathy. She was born at Rochester, N. Y., in 1839. Since 1859 her home has been at Evanston, Ill. may fairly be said that no one, man or woman, in this country, has done more effective work in behalf of temperance and pur ity of life, or the just and proper advancement of women so cially, legally, and industrially. The Women's Christian Temperance Union was organized at Cleveland, O., in Eleventh month, 1874, and Frances Willard was made corresponding secretary; in 1879 she was chosen president, and has so continued. She has traveled widely, and exerted herself to the utmost of her powers,-indeed beyond her strength. When the World's organization of the Christian Temperance Union was formed, she was chosen president of that. Her serenity, animation, courage, and liberality gave a strength to her work which it is in the power of few to contribute. BIRTHS. HENRIE.—In Millville, Columbia county, Pa., Eleventh month 5, 1897, to Clemuel R. and Narcissa M. Henrie, a daughter, who is named Margaret Miriam. MARRIAGES. POWNALL-WALTON.-On the 16th of Second month, 1898, at the home of the bride's mother, in Highland township, Chester county, Pa., under the care of Fallowfield Monthly Meeting of Friends, Vincent S. Pownall, son of Joseph D. C. and Mary H. Pownall, and Bertha S., daughter of Elizabeth P. and the late William Walton. SWAYNE-CHEYNEY.-At the home of the bride's father, Doe Run, Chester Co., Pa., Second month 16, 1898, in accordance with the usage of Friends, William M. Swayne, Jr., of New Garden, Pa., son of W. Marshall and Mary B. Swayne, and Annie, daughter of Hickman Cheyney. HARLAN.—Deceased, Sara Harlan, Tenth month 4, 1897, in the 17th year of her age, after a short illness of fever, at the home of her parents, J. Comly and Martha W. Harlan, Hale Center, Hale county, Texas. We miss thee from our home, dear, We miss the sunshine of thy face. PARENTS. |